Abstract: A three-dimensional pharmacophore model was developed for a considerable number of pyrrolidine-based and butane-based chemokine (C-C motif) receptor 5(CCR5) antagonists, which can block the entry of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) by inhibiting the interaction of HIV-1 envelope protein and CCR5. The pharmacophore model was generated using a training set consisting of 25 carefully selected antagonists with the diverse molecular architecture and bioactivity, as required by the Catalyst/HypoGen program. The activity of the training set molecules expressed in IC50 ( half-inhibitory concentration) covered from 0.06 to 10000 nmol·L-1. The most predictive pharmacophore model (Hypo 1), consisting of two positive ionizable points and three hydrophobic groups, had a correlation of 0.924 and a root mean square of 1.068, and a cost difference of 63.67 bits between the null cost and the total cost. The model was applied in predicting the activity of 74 compounds as a test set. The results indicated that the model was able to provide clear guidelines and accurate activity prediction for novel antagonist design.

Key words: CCR5, HIV-1, Pharmacophore model, Ligand-based drug design